Want to do MBA but don't like GMAT ?

If you answer 'yes' to this question, then you are not alone. A lot of people that I have spoken to have the same feeling especially people who are already working but want to pursue higher education. After defering my plans for about two years I finally gathered the courage to sitdown and prepare for my GMAT. GMAT as you may know is mostly objective, except for the two essays. I blew my first attempt and scored only 530. This score could only get me a seat in San Francisco State University (SFSU) or Sanjose State University (SJSU). I was not happy with my score and I believed that if I was going to invest a lot of time and money in an MBA programme then it might as well be the best possible programme that could yield a higher ROI. So I decided to take it again after a month and wooo I scored 670. I didn't expect this honestly ; but there was something significantly different that I did during my second preparation. I spent about three months preparing before my first atempt. I must say that I had been out of college for 10 years when I attempted my GMAT. So I had to brush up a lot and in GMAT time is of essence. I didnot go for any classes because they were expensive and I didnot believe much in them. So I bought the Kaplan GMAT book with CD ROM and the Official Guide for GMAT. The editions have changed since then. In preparing for my first attempt I went through the Kaplan book and solved all the exercises. I even timed myself while solving the problems in the book. I then took the two or three tests from the Official guide. This gave me enough confidence but I didnot do a good job in training myself to manage the time well. My plan was to divide the test into two halfs and time it accordingly. During my actual test I blew on the timing. I was too slow and had the tendency to keep trying although in my subconciousness I knew that I had to move on. As a result I had to guess a lot of the questions towards the end for lack of time. For my second round I used the Kaplan CD and took the tests. WoW! What a wonderful resource and how stupid of me to have ignored this in the first place. There were about seven or eight actual exams that was a simulation of the real exam. Towards the end of the exam it gives you some statistics and you can analyze your weakness and improve on them. It was cool. The questions on the Kaplan CD are much tougher and lengthier (in the maths section) than the actual GMAT tests. I also adopted a different method of timing. I divided the section into three parts instead of two. This gave me a quicker feedback. I knew exactly how many questions I should have completed in the first interval, in the second and in the third. If I was lagging behind then I knew it much sooner. This preparation and the timing technique really helped me. I couldn't believe when I really saw my score on the screen. With a score of 670 my hopes of getting into a top Business school was once again revived. I joined Santa Clara in the Spring of 2006.

Do you have any stories on how you made the move to take GMAT finally ? Share with us ...